


The Forest Calls

by sakurahaiku



Category: LOONA (Korea Band), X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: AU, Author Just Wants Orbits and One Its to Get Along, Dimension Breaking, Dimension Travel, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Odd Eye Powers, Rating May Change, Superstition, Tags and Characters to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-10-28 13:37:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20779475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurahaiku/pseuds/sakurahaiku
Summary: Hangyul has always walked on the side of the street furthest from the forest. It’s an old habit, based on childhood fears and his mother’s superstitions(He was right to be afraid)All Seungwoo wants to do is see her face(He should learn to be afraid)Dohyon can't escape the yearning for the forest's symphony(He should know better than to be afraid)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir

Dohyon could see the forest from his bedroom window. As a young child, it scared him to his core. He imagined demons and witches and monsters all ready to snatch him up and kill him. His imagination roared. He thought of his own blood pooling around him and the darkness washing over him as he drew his last breaths. He was older now and knew that these monsters were not real, but the result of an overactive imagination.

The forest was no longer scary to the teenager, rather, it had become alluring. He imagined the wind blowing through the trees, the calls of the birds, the snapping of branches. He could imagine the symphony of the woods, he yearned for it. He wanted to hear it and return home to replicate it on his piano. It would be hard, but he was sure he could do it. He grew up being called a musical genius, a prodigy; if anyone could reimagine the orchestral arrangements of nature it had to be him.

And, yet, he had never dared to step foot in the forest. Perhaps it was the lingering anxiety of his childhood nightmares that stopped him. Or perhaps it was his own fear that his own music could not compare. The yearning, however, endured. Dohyon could feel it grow and rise, and he wasn’t sure when his curiosity was going to get the better of him. He was going to enter the forest one day; it was a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’.

The call had grown ever stronger in the last few months. Dohyon found himself staring aimlessly out the window, watching the distant trees sway with the wind. His anticipation for the symphony was growing too large for his heart. He found himself dreaming of soft hikes, leaves crunching beneath his feet. He would dream of the symphony becoming a song. A melody that would linger in his thoughts but disappear in the morning.

The dreams became more frequent, the song became more real. He could imagine the wind blowing through his hair, walking towards a pond. The song would swell and grow. A female voice would join his, and the wind would blow ever stronger. He would look over the edge of the pond, and look for the girl in the water. He would sing, as he reached out to grab her, his hand almost grasping hers.

And then he would wake up, his arm hanging limply in the air. And he would look out his window, as the sun rose over the forest, and yearn for his song. His excitement could not be contained for much longer, his anticipation was too great. He didn’t know when his emotions would overflow and he was no longer able to control himself. He would enter the forest, and would do so soon. The song sank in his stomach like a rock, unmovable.

* * *

The cat was hard to catch, but Dongpyo was determined. He followed it through the streets, winding through alleys. He tried to always stay a few metres behind, not wanting to spook the creature. It was a small cat, more like a kitten, but Dongpyo could sense that it was full grown. He could emphasize, having stopped growing well before he wanted to.

The cat didn’t have a collar on it, so Dongpyo figured it was fair game. He wasn’t one to come home with stray animals, but there was something so mystical about this cat that he just had to have it. He was stubborn, and refused to give up the chase. His parent were away on a business trip, so by the time they got back the cat will have acclimated to their home. Dongpyo felt that his plan was foolproof.

The cat took a sudden turn, and Dongpyo found himself staring at it from afar. The cat turned around and met his gaze with piercing, yellow eyes. Dongpyo knelt down, extending his hand. The cat stared at him. He took a step closer, and closer, and closer. Soon, he was close enough to touch the creature. His hand hovered anxiously over the cat’s head, and Dongpyo felt himself shaking. The cat craned its neck, gracefully brushing against the boy’s palm.

He stroked the creature’s soft fur. He marvelled in how friendly the animal was, how open it was to human affection. Slowly, he reached out his other hand and went to pick the cat up. The animal went up into his arms willingly.

“Hey girl,” Dongpyo whispered against the creature’s ear. The cat meowed in response as the boy turned to take her home.

* * *

“What is that girl doing?” Yohan whispered against his second story bedroom window.

He had been watching his neighbour, a girl a year younger than him named Heejin, twirl around her backyard for an hour. She was clutching a broom, so Yohan figured that she must have been sent outside to do chores, or something, though he failed to see what she could be doing with a broom on grass. Sure, maybe he was also a little bit odd since he had been watching her all this time, but he didn’t have anything better to do! Or, at least, that’s how he rationalized it in his head.

Heejin didn’t notice him, he didn’t think, and he was left bewildered by her. Her long, brown hair was swaying with her motions; Yohan would have been mesmerized if he didn’t find the whole situation so confusing. The girl had always been eccentric, he recalled, but she had never been this strange. She was still swaying and swirling, and he wondered how she found the energy.

They knew each other, but the two had never been friends. They had gone to the same school, him being a year above, and he knew she never had too many friends. The boys in his class had whispered that the girl was beautiful, but too weird to approach. He found that he couldn’t help but agree. You couldn’t argue Heejin’s beauty, but that meant you couldn’t deny her quirks either.

A muffled yell broke him out of his musings. He looked to see Heejin waving at him, shouting something. Embarrassed to have been noticed, Yohan felt his ears turn red. He fumbled for the latch at the window and opened it.

“Hey!” Heejin yelled at him, “Are you some sort of creep or something?”

“What?” Yohan screamed back, “No!”

“Then why are you staring at me?”

“Why are you being weird?”

Yohan couldn’t quite hear it, but Heejin’s shoulders fell in a huff as she stared up at him. Their eyes met and held, and Yohan could almost feel her eyes softening. Time slowed to a crawl as they stared at each other, neither knowing what to say.

Yohan opened his mouth to say something, an apology, but Heejin beat him to it.

“Next time,” she loudly stammered, “Just come down and join me,”

Yohan watched as she waltzed back into her house. He was in a daze.

* * *

Seungwoo had been having the same dream for months. He was in deep water, eyes opened wide. He didn’t feel like he was drowning, but the water stretched on endlessly. Only a sliver of sunlight made it to his depths. He tried to take in a breath, but his lungs were full, as if he were already dead.

The water pressure changed, and Seungwoo began to move through the water. He knew where to go; he had had this dream countless times before. He pulled his body through the familiar water, feeling the current pull him towards his destination. The water felt cool against his skin, numbing him. Seungwoo relished the sensation.

And then there she was. Floating with her back towards him. Her short, brown hair floated aimlessly. He had never managed to get her to turn around, never managed to look at her face. Every night he became more determined, trying in vain to swim around to the front of her body. Every night she eluded him, moving faster than he ever could. They continued on with this dance for minutes, maybe hours. Seungwoo could always tell when the dream was almost over; the water would turn greener and greener as they turned and swayed, as if polluted.

The water grew colder and colder until Seungwoo could no longer move his body. The girl would giggle then, a melodious noise that made the man yearn to see the lips it escaped from. The current shot him straight up to the sky, the girl’s laugh ringing in his ear, until he was out of the water and into the sky. White feathers would rain down on him thickly, heavily. He would gasp for breath until he suffocates, drowns, eyes flying open to the sun draped walls of his bedroom.

* * *

Hangyul has always walked on the side of the street furthest from the forest. It’s an old habit, based on childhood fears and his mother’s superstitions. She had told him that evil lurked in the forest, evil that wanted to take him away from her. As a child, he had held onto his mother’s hand and believed her, but as an adult he knew that wasn’t true. The habit stuck, however, and he rarely walked on the sidewalk on the other side, never followed the path to the forest.

He often found himself staring across the street. He always wondered where his mother’s superstitions had come from. Many of the older residents in town shared them, only going close to the forest when absolutely necessary. Hangyul had always meant to look into it, but could never find the time. His best bet was that a child was snatched away into the forest generations back, and the myths of evil and monsters stuck.

He was staring across the street, admiring the first glimpses of the morning sun when he was blinded by a flash of red. He blinked repeatedly, trying hard to get the stars out of his eyes. When they came back into focus, he saw the silhouette of a girl, her back to him. Her hair was dark, almost black. He stood and stared as she began to walk towards the forest.

A few steps in and she turned around, marking harsh eye contact with Hangyul. He could do nothing but stare back at her, holding her gaze. He felt weak in her stare, feeling an emotion that bordered on terrified. She grinned at him, turned around, and continue to walk towards the woods. He watched as her image turned smaller, and she disappeared into the trees.

The sun glowed red over the trees, wishing the town a good morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are curious about different things, at different times.

The girl appeared every morning without fail, while Hangyul was out for his morning commute. It had become part of his morning routine, staring at the other side of the street until a familiar flash of red blinded him. She would appear from nowhere, dark hair swaying in the breeze. She would walk, her back facing him, towards the forest. Some days, like on the first day he saw her, she would turn around and grin at her. Others, she would keep walking.

Hangyul wasn’t sure what to make of the strange occurrence. It was happening so regularly, so frequently, that he was sure he wasn’t dreaming in the day. A week passed, and his curiosity spiked. He needed to know who she was, what she was doing. He couldn’t fathom how she was even arriving to his town. The thoughts overtook his system; it overrode all other thoughts until it consumed him.

He decided to take the plunge, to satiate his curiosity. As with all mornings, he waited for her to appear. He held his breathe and counted to ten, the sunrise slowly appearing over the edge of the forest. The familiar blast of red light appeared, and with it she arrived. Hangyul attempted to make eye contact, but the girl’s movements were to swift, too quick. Her back was to him as soon as his eyes adjusted from the light.

He watched her, heart beating quickly, as she made her way towards the forest. She took another, then another, until she was halfway to the forest’s edge. His feet moved faster than his thoughts. He mirrored her steps, though he was well behind her. Hangyul reached the midway point as she swiftly moved around the trees, entering the forest. He could stop here, he thought, but his feet continued moving forward.

He eventually reached the forest himself, and he stared into the dark abyss of trees. A small path had been created by the girl over the days. Hangyul could easily follow her in further, if he chose to. He placed his hand against a tree, adrenaline pumping through him. It was not, however, enough to quell his childhood fears, the primal terror put into him by his mother from his earliest memories. He turned back around, and went on with his day.

* * *

Yohan watched Heejin again from his window. The broom was left on the ground, and she was weeding the garden. He watched her deftly choosing what weeds to pluck from the ground, her hands always gently hovering above the plants. He wasn’t close enough to know for sure, but Yohan imagined Heejin’s eyes darting across the garden, choosing her next victim.

She adjusted her position, momentarily losing her balance. Yohan couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him, and Heejin looked up, meeting his eyes. Both of them opened their mouths to say something, but both stopped in anticipation of the other. Yohan’s heart beat heavily against his chest as Heejin shyly looked back at her task, finding the action cute, in spite of himself.

Yohan knew that he must look a little creepy, leaning out his window, watching the pretty girl, but if she was uncomfortable she would have already told him off. Yohan wondered if Heejin knew she was pretty, or if she thought she was too weird to be pretty. Maybe she thought she was normal and everyone else was weird? Yohan didn’t know, but he really liked looking at her.

“Hey!” A voice brought him out of his musings, “Aren’t you going to come help?”

Yohan looked down at Heejin, now defiantly staring up at him, her mouth in a cheeky grin. He smiled in response.

“Why should I? You’re doing great!”

“All you’re doing is staring at me!”

“Yeah, so?”

“Then come down here and be useful!”

Yohan laughed, shutting his window. He wondered if Heejin thought he was going to come down. That he was excited to go down and stare at her face up close. He wondered if she thought she was going to lecture him if he jokingly tried to pull a flower instead of a weed. Yohan didn’t want to give her that satisfaction.

He went down anyways, a smile on his face.

* * *

He was having the dream again. Wordlessly, thoughtlessly, Seungwoo floated through the water. He could feel the pressure of the depths on his lungs; there was no oxygen in him. The feeling of death shrouded him, and he felt neither uncomfortable or alarmed. He had grown used to this set of circumstances, in his dreamland.

Seungwoo followed the familiar currents to his destination. He found that he could turn off his brain; his body would move on auto-pilot, taking him to his destination. The water felt like ice on his skin. If he were alive and not dreaming, he’s sure the skin there would be bumpy and raised. The pressure on his lungs increased as he made his way towards his target.

And there she was, her brown hair floating aimlessly in the cool water. The yearning on his heart to see her face grew with every second he stared at her back. He tried to swim around her, but she was too fast. She was always too fast for him. Most nights they would dance around one another, the water turning greener with each spin and twirl. Tonight, Seungwoo found he didn’t have the energy.

Exhausted, he allowed himself to slow down, and stopped the dance. He resigned himself to staring at the familiar curves of her back, the floating tendrils of her hair. The green of the water seemed to stagnate, turning bluer and bluer with each beat of his heart.

The girl giggled, a familiar sound. Tonight, however, Seungwoo noticed that the usual melodious noise had been replaced with something darker and more sinister. The laughter sent shivers down his spine. His ears perked when she, for the first time, spoke.

“Giving up so soon?” The voice was gentle and beautiful, but tinged with a malice and evil that Seungwoo couldn’t fathom. He tried to choke out a response, but the lack of oxygen made it stop in his throat. She giggled again, the water around them turning so blue it was almost black.

The current dragged him down, further into the depths of the ocean. The water turned colder on his skin, until ice scraped at his skin. Seungwoo felt the water turn thicker and thicker, pressing harshly against his body, until it turned into snow. He awoke in his bed, shivering and gasping for air.

* * *

Dongpyo stared at the cat from across the room. His parents had called and said they would be staying longer on their business trip. Every second they were gone was another second the cat had to adjust to her new home. He had brought her home a week ago, but still couldn’t think of a name for her. He had resigned to calling her Kitty, and his pet seemed fine with that.

The past few days, he had struggled with wanting to tell his friends about Kitty, not knowing if one of them would tell their parents, who would then inform his. The weight of the secret was pressing down on him, and he needed to tell someone. His fingers hovered over his phone, selecting one of his friends to ask to come over. Once his target agreed, all Dongpyo could do was sit and wait.

He had tried very hard to not let anyone know about the newest inhabitant in the house. Dongpyo had been ordering food and toys and other necessities online, too fearful to go to the store. He was paying using his parent’s credit card, but Dongpyo honestly thought they wouldn’t check their statement too carefully, especially if they were on vacation. He wondered if they had automatic payment for the card; he wasn’t an expert, but he was smart enough to know that his parents had enough money that they wouldn’t notice such a small amount.

The only expensive item he had bought for Kitty was a cat bed, even though he knew that the cat would sleep wherever it damn well pleased. It was a soft pink, and looked out of place with the darker tones of his bedroom. Dongpyo had bought it anyways, hoping that Kitty would find it a soft and safe place to sleep. Kitty had surprised him, however, by choosing to snuggle up on his pillow right next to his head. Maybe the cat had realized Dongpyo’s need for companionship. Or maybe Kitty, having lived on the streets, was the one in need of snuggles. Either way, Dongpyo didn’t mind; the house was too quiet without Kitty’s breathing in his ear.

The doorbell rang, and Dongpyo got up, quickly closing the door to his bedroom behind him. His friends knew to wait a few moments for him, the walk between his bedroom and the front door always took longer than anticipated. Dongpyo breathed in deeply, before opening the door to a smiling Eunsang. Quick greetings were exchanged, before Dongpyo frantically closed the door and dragged his friend to his bedroom, a tight grip on Eunsang’s wrist.

Dongpyo hesitated at his bedroom door, his free hand hovering over the handle. Eunsang made a noise of confusion, and Dongpyo let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Eunsang,” Dongpyo began, “You can keep a secret, right?”

“Of course,” came the cheerful lit of Eunsang’s response.

“If my parents find out about this before they come home, I’m dead. Do you understand me?” Eunsang laughed in response, before Dongpyo’s frustrated huff forced him into a vow of secrecy. Dongpyo breathed in once more, and opened the door to a waiting Kitty.

As expected, Eunsang fawned over the cat, and Kitty seemed relaxed in Eunsang’s soft embrace.

“Donpyo,” Eunsang breathed, “She’s perfect,”

“I know. I love her so much,” Dongpyo smiled at his friend.

“Where did you get her?”

“I found her,”

“Found her where?” Eunsang looked at Dongpyo with nervous eyes.

“…Near an alleyway,” Dongpyo paused before responding.

“You randomly decided to pick up a stray cat and bring her home?”

“…maybe,”

“Dongpyo!”

“See, you’re getting angry at me but you’re still cuddling my cat,”

“What if she belongs to someone?”

“She doesn’t have a collar,”

“That doesn’t mean anything! What if she has fleas or something?”

“I gave her a bath,”

“Did you take her to the vet?”

“Of course not, they might call my parents! My dad knows everyone in this town, Eunsang!” Dongpyo admonished his friend, “Basically everyone is my enemy!”

“She needs to see a vet,” Eunsang sighed.

“She will as soon as my parents come home,” Dongpyo groaned, “Right now there’s nothing I can do,”

“Why a cat?”

“It’s nice to come home to someone that wants to see you,” Dongpyo’s response gave Eunsang pause, and Kitty moved to be held by her owner.

“She is very cute,” Eunsang spoke softly, after a moment of silence, “Her eyes are captivating. They look almost human,”

Kitty blinked her yellow eyes in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient while waiting for the second chapter. I really wanted it to be good! 
> 
> I have a lot of fun writing Seungwoo's dream sequences, though I can already tell that Yohan and Heejin are going to be a pain to write because I suck at writing flirtation. Please bear with me. 
> 
> We'll be meeting two new characters next chapter, can you guess who?

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome all to a new fan fiction. I've had this one stuck in my head for a little bit now, and I just had to start writing it. I hope it meets expectations. 
> 
> I will be continuing Colorverse, it's just that Hyunjin in that story is very hard to write. 
> 
> Please subscribe to know first when this story is updated!


End file.
